Energy supplied by humanitarian
kite
The Zéphyr project, a photovoltaic balloon
designed by students, aims to supply energy to disaster areas
In the Iliad, Zephyr is a vio lent, stormy wind,
while in the Odyssey and more recent literature, it is depicted as gentle and
light--a warm breeze that melts the snow. In this project set up by two
ambitious young Parisian graduates, Zephyr takes the form of a flying device
that comes to the rescue of those living without electricity in disaster areas.
In emergency situations, the In emergency
situations, the question of energy supply is often of critical importance. At
the moment, electricity in refugee camps generally comes from heavy , polluting
generators that require expensive fuel oil. The supply chains for such oil can
be broken, making procurement unpredictable.
These problems gave the students the idea of
designing a photovoltaic balloon inspired by inflatable balloons, which can
generate energy anywhere--even in disaster areas where it is not possible to
install land-based infrastructure as a result, for example, of a natural
catastrophe. The students, graduates of Telecom ParisTech and the École Na
tionale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, met while working together from
November 2013 to March 2014 on 'energies of the future' at the Laboratoire, a
facility set up in Paris to bring together engineers and designers.
Energy for fifty people
The principle is based on a highly mobile,
low-cost kit made up of a box housing the technology and a lightweight sail.
The landbased housing contains an electrical transformer and is less than a
cubic meter in volume, while the sail is 3.8 m in diameter and is covered with
15 m2 of lightweight solar panels. 'All you need to do is unfurl the sail and allow
it to inflate. The balloon collects solar energy and transports it to the
ground via a cable, while the batteries store surplus energy and take over the
power supply at night,' explains Cédric Tomissi, one of the two young designers
behind the project. The electrolyser uses nine litres of water plus the solar
energy collected, coupled with the batteries inside the housing, to produce the
gas needed to inflate Zéphyr in half a day. Halfway between a balloon and a
kite, this hybrid device has a yield of up to 3 kilowatt hours (kWh),
comparable to that of a traditional generator.This is enough to supply lighting
and heating to around fifty people living, for example, in a refugee camp or
emergency hospital.
The idea has not gone unnoticed. The young
entrepreneurs have already won several awards, including the 2014 ArtScience
prize, the 2014 James Dyson Award, first prize at the 2014 Student
Entrepreneurship Day run by the Université Paris-Saclay, the 2014 Humanitech
Challenge jointly organised by the Red Helmets Foundation and Orange and EDF's
'Sharing energy in the city , 2030' challenge. They were also given the
opportunity to present their project at EDF's stand at the Saint-Étienne Design
Biennale in March. 'It's a simple, environmentally friendly device,' explains
Jonathan Bouzy , a project manager at Soft IQ and member of the Humanitech
Challenge panel of judges. 'They are applying existing technology in a brand
new way . That's what “high tech“ is all about.' A technical feasibility study
was carried out on the balloon last November in partnership with EDF , Dassault
Systèmes, the Red Helmets Foundation and the Institute of Research and
Development on Photovoltaic Energy (IRDEP). The students worked particularly
closely with the IRDEP to improve the balloon's photovoltaic technology . After
one of the engineers who set up the project left the team to pursue other
professional avenues, Zéphyr entered into a partnership with the EI-CESI
engineering school, giving final-year Master's degree students the opportunity
to work on technical aspects of the project.
From student project to start-up
The next stage is to build an initial prototype,
which should be completed in January 2017 and will serve as 'proof of
concept'.'We think that we will need 25,000 euros to make it,' explains Julie
Dautel, a designer who is currently studying at the SciencesPo Paris research
university . Zéphyr has already received around ten thousand euros from the
various prizes that it has won and a fundraising campaign is planned to run
from September 2015 to January 2016. The team hopes to use this investment to
take on additional staff, particularly engineers. The two young entrepreneurs
want to turn this student project into a start-up.Zéphyr is also currently
applying to join the Sciences-Po Paris incubator.
The duo is aiming to move into an industrial
phase and start selling the balloon in 2018. More investment (one million
euros) will be required at this later stage. In the long term, the aim is to
sell an entire range of balloons adapted to generate energy in different kinds
of situations, including non-humanitarian applications. 'The balloon can be
used for homes in remote areas where the roof cannot take the weight of
traditional solar panels, at campsites and in nomadic encampments like those
found in Africa and Asia. It can even be used to support communications
technology,' explains Julie Dautel. For now, it will be some time before Zéphyr
is ready to take to the air.
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Caroline de Malet (Le Figaro)
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TOI20JUN15
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